soccerfans_097_mac.jpg Francesco Fonseca greets fans on the way to practice. Soccer fans gather at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland to see the players of the Mexico's National team who will play Ecuador's National team tomorrow night in Oakland. Photographed in, Oakland, Ca, on 3/27/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ The Chronicle Mandatory credit for Photographer and San Francisco Chronicle No sales/ Magazines Out

Photo: Michael Macor

soccerfans_097_mac.jpg Francesco Fonseca greets fans on the way to...

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13 year old Francisco Mendoza plays goalie for his youth soccer team. He gets to go to the match Wednesday where he will root for his beloved Mexican Nationals.
The Mexican National team has come to town for a match against Ecuador. Many will have to watch the game on television but a few lucky fans will get to attend the game Wednesday night. Youth soccer teams were practicing at Lazear Field Tuesday night...everyone was looking forward to the game. {Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}3/27/07

Photo: Brant Ward

13 year old Francisco Mendoza plays goalie for his youth soccer...

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Luis Mendoza, left, will get to attend the Mexican National game Wednesday...he also coaches youth soccer and ties the shoes of his nephew Jose Sutarnino at a practice Tuesday.
The Mexican National team has come to town for a match against Ecuador. Many will have to watch the game on television but a few lucky fans will get to attend the game Wednesday night. Youth soccer teams were practicing at Lazear Field Tuesday night...everyone was looking forward to the game. {Brant Ward/San Francisco Chronicle}3/27/07

Photo: Brant Ward

Luis Mendoza, left, will get to attend the Mexican National game...

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Jose Castro shops "Chivamexx "clothing store along International Blvd. in Oakland for shirts and flags for tomorrows soccer game. He purchased two soccer shirt for $182.00. Soccer fans gather at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland to see the players of the Mexico's National team who will play Ecuador's National team tomorrow night in Oakland. Photographed in, Oakland, Ca, on 3/27/07. Photo by: Michael Macor/ The Chronicle

A frenzied crowd of nearly 50,000 soccer fans, the largest ever to watch a non-World Cup game in Northern California, will gather in Oakland tonight to watch an exhibition game between two national teams from foreign countries -- Mexico and Ecuador.

The Mexican national team is the most popular soccer team in the United States and consistently outdraws America's team, or any other soccer club for that matter.

And any game in California is like a home game for the Mexicans.

The Oakland Coliseum will be filled with thousands of screaming fans wearing "El Tricolor" -- the green, red and white of the Mexican national flag. The game sold out nearly a month ago. Tickets originally priced at $60 were being resold on Craigslist for $150 on Tuesday.

"We in Mexi-fornia consider this a home game," said Roger Fernandez, owner of ChivaMex, a store in Oakland's Fruitvale District that specializes in Mexican League and other international soccer apparel. "I mean Ecuador is coming to our house, so we got to represent for Mexico."

To back up his point, Fernandez noted that in recent weeks he had sold more than 200 green home jerseys of the Mexican team. On Tuesday afternoon, he was worried he would run out of the $60 jerseys as construction workers, students and other fans crowded into his store eager to buy team merchandise or Mexican flags. Only a few Ecuador team items had been sold and maybe a thousand Ecuadorans are expected at the game.

Ben Ramírez Spencer of Soccer United Marketing, which is co-sponsoring tonight's game, said bringing Mexican teams to select markets north of the border for exhibition games is a good way to promote soccer in America.

Professional soccer teams in this country rarely, if ever, sell out large stadiums. So visits by Mexico's teams are the only way that American fans can experience soccer the way the rest of the world does -- in a crowded stadium with fans screaming, jumping and singing.

"These games show you the public interest in soccer in these markets," Spencer said. "It shows Americans the power and beauty of this sport. I think it broadens the appeal of the game."

Although tonight's game is primarily being marketed to fans of Mexico, it's a big deal for the Bay Area's small Ecuadoran community as well.

Alberto Zurita, 30, paid $450 for three tickets so he could take his wife and 5-year-old son to the game. "I paid all this money because I really wanted my son to see it up close and get excited," said Zurita of El Cerrito. He lived in Ecuador's capital of Quito before moving to the Bay Area in 1996. "It's historic. For Ecuador to play here is amazing, it might be decades before we can see the team again."

The players on Mexico's team may not be household names to most Americans. But on Tuesday hundreds of fans gathered outside the Oakland Marriott on Broadway for a chance to see them. Just before noon, the entire team boarded a bus to go to the practice field in Alameda. They were followed by a convoy of more than 100 fans and a taco truck to the practice on a nicely groomed field on the old Naval Air Station property.

Several members of Oakland Tech's high school soccer team played hooky to see their heroes practice and get their jerseys autographed.

"This is like the chance of lifetime," said Rene Martinez, 18, a senior. "It's so cool to watch a practice up close like that."

Many of the soccer fans carry a complicated mix of sports loyalties between teams here and in Mexico.

At ChivaMex, Maurizio Carrillo, 22, purchased a Mexican team jersey -- and walked out to International Boulevard, where he took off his Raider cap long enough to slip the jersey over his Golden State Warriors T-shirt.

Carrillo, who emigrated from Puerto Vallarta six years ago, sees no conflict in his various team loyalties.

"Mexico will always be my soccer team," he said with a big smile. "For other sports I say: Let's go Oakland."

Fans of the Mexican team said it's about tradition and passion for the game. For immigrants from Mexico, support for the national team is one of the most powerful forms of ethnic pride.

"In my family we cheer for Mexico and America," said Manuel Romero, a grandfather who emigrated from Guadalajara to Oakland in 1973. "But I am Mexican American -- Mexican first and then I became American. I love the Raiders, I love the A's. But when it comes to soccer, it's Chivas (Guadalajara's soccer team) and Mexico."

Romero is bringing a contingent of a dozen friends and family members to the game.

"My kids were all born here, so I expect things to change; they feel closer to America," Romero said. "There is no soccer tradition here. No passion. Maybe that changes when my grandchildren grow up."